David Starr, Space Ranger is the first novel in the
Lucky Starr series, six juvenile
science fiction novels by
Isaac Asimov that originally appeared under the pseudonym Paul French. The novel was written between 10 June and 29 July 1951 and first published by
Doubleday & Company in January 1952. Since 1971, reprints have included an introduction by Asimov explaining that advancing knowledge of conditions on
Mars have rendered some of the novel's descriptions of that world inaccurate. The novel was originally intended to serve as the basis for a television series, a science-fictionalized version of
The Lone Ranger, but the series was never made, in part because another series called
Rocky Jones, Space Ranger was already in the planning stages.